West Elm to move into OfficeMax location at Tanger

The former OfficeMax space at Tanger Outlets is slated to be occupied by a Brooklyn-based furniture store.

West Elm, a company that sells furniture, bedding, lighting and other items, plans to open in that space.

A architect representing the company went before the Riverhead Town Architectural Review Board last Wednesday with changes to the sign.

West Elm was founded in Brooklyn in 2002, and is a subsidiary of Williams-Sonoma. It has stores in more than 85 U.S. cities as well as in Canada, Mexico, Australia, the United Kingdom and the Middle East, according to its website.

The proposed Riverhead site is adjacent to an existing Williams-Sonoma store, with a Pottery Barn, another subsidiary of that company, next to that.

West Elm already has a store in Tanger I. That is expected to be replaced by the new location, which a store employee is planned to open around October.

OfficeMax had occupied its former space for more than 17 years until it closed last November. The company had merged with rival Office Depot in 2013 and the Riverhead store was one of about 300 OfficeMax or Office Depot stores nationwide that were closed in order to “optimize its footprint,” a company spokesperson said last year.

The Riverhead Pottery Barn site was actually approved by the town for a multiplex movie theater in 2001, but Tanger didn’t have a movie theater tenant at the time, and ended up going with Pottery Barn instead.